Stevie Wonder Talks Upcoming Symphonic, Gospel Albums

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Stevie Wonder discussed a couple of upcoming albums on Saturday night (June 22), as mingled with fellow musicians at the Hollywood Bowl Opening Night Gala Saturday (June 22), where he inducted pal John Legend into the venue’s hall of fame and revealed details on some upcoming projects.

Among the projects is upcoming effort Ten Billion Hearts, which will feature a symphony orchestra and remakes of some of his classic hits, like “Isn’t She Lovely.”

“It is a lot of things that I have done, old material, but doing it a different way,” he told Rolling Stone, who interviewed him backstage. “I’m going to do about three or four new songs as well. We did ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ with the orchestra and I wrote another verse to it. This is just another interpretation, and we did the arrangement a little differently and it turned out really, really good. I’m really excited about it.”

He added that he’d be up to return to the Los Angeles venue as a headliner in 2014 to support his forthcoming albums, which also include a gospel album dedicated to his late mother.

“Gospel Inspired By Lula, [is] a gospel album I’m doing in tribute to my mother,” Wonder said in the interview. “I promised her I would do it. She always wanted me to do it before she passed away, the untimely passing away. We’ve been working on some songs and some ideas. So we’re going to complete that as well.”

Wonder emphasized that he hopes to spread the word of gospel to all his fans, regardless of faith or religion, and even intends to perform a song in Arabic.